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This volume, which constitutes No. 10 of the International Psycho-Analytical Library, completes the present edition of Freud's Collected Papers in their English form; an event upon which all concerned—editor, supervisor, translators, publishers, and, last but not least, all English-speaking students of psycho-analysis—are heartily to be congratulated. The publication of this well-arranged and scholarly translation of practically all Freud's shorter papers should constitute an event of real importance for the history of psychology in English-speaking countries.
As in the case of first and second volumes, the translations have been carried out by various hands, but all collaborators appear to have conscientiously and for the most part successfully endeavoured to preserve the characteristics which, though not easy to define, are nevertheless important elements of the total effect produced by Freud's writings, and which perhaps more than anything else seem to afford the reader some fascinating insight into the nature and qualities of a most remarkable mind.
The twenty-four papers contained in this volume are divided into two main groups, headed respectively: 'Papers on Metapsychology' and 'Papers on Applied Psycho-Analysis.' As is well known in psycho-analytical circles (but probably very little as yet outside these circles), Freud uses the term 'Metapsychology' in a special technical sense to denote the theoretical treatment of a psychological problem in terms of the topography, economics and dynamics of the processes concerned—but in practice, as Freud himself admits (p. 114), in the present state of our knowledge such a treatment can only be given at 'isolated points.' Probably for this reason there is a tendency to use the term for any serious theoretical discussion along psycho-analytical lines, even when the topographical, economic and dynamic aspects are not separately treated or explicitly formulated, as is to a certain extent the case with some of the earlier